Pretext Quotes - Page 2

• However fiercely opposed one may be to the present order, an old respect for the idea of order itself often prevents people from distinguishing between order and those who stand for order, and leads them in practice to respect individuals under the pretext of respecting order itself.

  Antonin Artaud

  Order, Practice, Ideas

  Antonin Artaud, Susan Sontag (1976). “Antonin Artaud, Selected Writings”, p.341, Univ of California Press

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• Never has any one been less a priest than Jesus, never a greater enemy of forms, which stifle religion under the pretext of protecting it. By this we are all his disciples and his successors; by this he has laid the eternal foundation-stone of true religion; and if religion is essential to humanity, he has by this deserved the Divine rank the world has accorded him.

  Ernest Renan

  Jesus, Humanity, Enemy

  Ernest Renan (1864). “The Life of Jesus”, p.90

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• But the greatest menace to our civilization today is the conflict between giant organized systems of self-righteousness - each system only too delighted to find that the other is wicked - each only too glad that the sins give it the pretext for still deeper hatred and animosity.

  Herbert Butterfield

  Self, Civilization, Giving

  Herbert Butterfield (1953). “Christianity, Diplomacy and War”, London : Epworth Press

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• The real danger we face is not from terrorism but what is being done under the pretext of fighting it.

  Michael Pare

  Real, Fighting, Political

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• Text without context is pretext.

  Walter Martin

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• Pretexts are not wanting when one wishes to use them.

  Carlo Goldoni

  Wish, Deceit, Use

  "La Villeggiatura", I, 12, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 182-83, 1922.

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• By one means or another, the swiftest method of rejection of the holy prophets has been to find a pretext, however false or absurd, to dismiss the man so that his message could also be dismissed.

  Spencer W. Kimball

  Mean, Men, Holy Prophet

  Spencer W. Kimball (1982). “The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, Twelfth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”

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• A global financial cabal engineered a fraudulent housing and debt bubble [2008], illegally shifted vast amounts of capital out of the US; and used 'privatization' as a form of piracy - a pretext to move government assets to private investors at below-market prices and then shift private liabilities back to government at no cost to the private liability holder Clearly, there was a global financial coup d'etat underway.

  Catherine Austin Fitts

  Moving, Government, Debt

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• The fight against drug trafficking is a false pretext for the United States to install military bases.

  Evo Morales

  Military, Fighting, Drug

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• But, sir, the great cause of complaint now is the slavery question, and the questions growing out of it. If there is any other cause of complaint which has been influential in any quarter, to bring about the crisis which is now upon us; if any State or any people have made the troubles growing out of this question, a pretext for agitation instead of a cause of honest complaint, Virginia can have no sympathy whatever, in any such feeling, in any such policy, in any such attempt. It is the slavery question. Is it not so?

  John Brown Baldwin

  War, Virginia, People

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• A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.

  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

  Artist, Self, Hands

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• If something is right (or wrong) for us, it’s right (or wrong) for others. It follows that if it’s wrong for Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and a long list of others to bomb Washington and New York, then it’s wrong for Rumsfeld to bomb Afghanistan (on much flimsier pretexts), and he should be brought before war crimes trials.

  Noam Chomsky

  New York, War, Long

  "On Terrorism". Interview with John Bolender, chomsky.info. January, 2004.

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• The enemy is only a pretext to test our strength

  Paulo Coelho

  Enemy, Tests

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• Nature is a mere pretext for a decorative composition, plus sentiment. It suggests emotion, and I translate that emotion into art.

  Georges Braque

  Art, Emotion, Plus

  Raymond Cogniat, Georges Braque, Joanne Greenspun (1980). “Georges Braque”

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• The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.

  James Madison

  War, Home, Mean

  James Madison (1787). “The Writings of James Madison: 1787. The journal of the Constitutional convention”, p.317

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• Authentic faith leads us to treat others with unconditional seriousness and to a loving reverence for the mystery of the human personality. Authentic Christianity should lead to maturity, personality, and reality. It should fashion whole men and women living lives of love and communion. False, manhandled religion produces the opposite effect. Whenever religion shows contempt or disregards the rights of persons, even under the noblest pretexts, it draws us away from reality and God.

  Brennan Manning

  Fashion, Live Life, Reality

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• We must always be on guard lest, under the pretext of keeping one commandment, we be found breaking another.

  Saint Basil

  Faith, Christianity, Christian Life

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• What is meant by charity? Charity is not fundamental. It is really helping on the misery of the world, not eradicating it. One looks for name and fame and covers his efforts to obtain them with the enamel of charity and good works. He is working for himself under the pretext of working for others. Every so-called charity is an encouragement of the very evil it claims to operate against.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Encouragement, Names, Evil

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2593, Manonmani Publishers

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• The legal toleration of abortion or of euthanasia can in no way claim to be based on respect for the conscience of others, precisely because society has the right and the duty to protect itself against the abuses which can occur in the name of conscience and under the pretext of freedom.

  Pope John Paul II

  Names, Abortion, Abuse

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• I do not exclude this, but I would like to draw your attention to one absolutely key aspect: In line with international law, only the U.N. Security Council can sanction the use of force against a sovereign state. Any other pretext or method which might be used to justify the use of force against an independent sovereign state is inadmissible and can only be interpreted as an aggression.

  Vladimir Putin

  Independent, Gay, Keys

  "G20: Russia says it will consider Syria military action but needs more proof". "AM", www.abc.net.au. September 5, 2013.

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• They knew only too well the intimate bond which unites faith with worship, 'the law of belief with the law of prayer,' and so, under the pretext of restoring it to its primitive form, they corrupted the order of the liturgy in many respects to adapt it to the errors of the Innovators.

  Pope Leo XIII

  Prayer, Errors, Order

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• Not to open the hunting season on the pretext that there is no game would be as if one gave up celebrating Christmas because there was not enough snow to go by sleigh to midnight Mass.

  Maurice Grimaud

  Hunting, Games, Snow

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• Variety made the Revolution. Liberty was just a pretext.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Liberty, Revolution, Made

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• Growth and mastery come only to those who vigorously self-direct. Initiating, creating, doing, reflecting, freely associating, enjoying privacy-these are precisely what the structures of schooling are set up to prevent, on one pretext or another.

  John Taylor Gatto

  School, Self, Creating

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• Perhaps peace is not, after all, something you work for, or 'fight for.' It is indeed 'fighting for peace' that starts all the wars. What, after all, are the pretexts of all these Cold War crises, but 'fighting for peace?' Peace is something you have or do not have. If you are yourself at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world. Then share your peace with everyone, and everyone will be at peace.

  Thomas Merton

  War, Fighting, World

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